Shooting Themselves in the Foot

As usual, while I ate lunch today I skimmed the news. Sigh. The Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot again.

Let me start over. If you know me at all, you know I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Humphrey-ite Democrat. No, that’s not the same thing as being a socialist :-). Still, I think it is important to have a healthy multi-party system in this country — debate on issues is important, and working to find compromise between parties can prevent abuses and find better solutions.

As I result, I’d like to see a healthy, functional, Republican party. Alas, (shakes his head) I read articles such as this: “Obama Proposes Surveillance-Policy Overhaul“, and… sigh… This whole NSA kurfluffle is one place where the Republicans can gain votes. They can jump on their long-time bandwagon of smaller government, and get the government out of this area. They can argue this is unnecessary government intrusion (hell, you know they would complain if it is was being used against conservative groups). Instead, what do we get? Quoting from the article:

In an early indication of the difficulty ahead, some Republicans who have been defending the NSA surveillance program lambasted the president. Rep. Pete King (R., N.Y.), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, called the president’s announcement “a monumental failure” of wartime leadership.

“We need a president who defends our intelligence programs, explains them appropriately to the American people, and uses every legal capability in his arsenal to defeat al Qaeda,” Mr. King said.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) criticized Mr. Obama for inadequately defending the programs. “Transparency is important, but we expect the White House to insist that no reform will compromise the operational integrity of the program,” said spokesman Brendan Buck.

So here is the President arguing for more transparency in the process, for a privacy advocate (yes, it’s not everything, but, c’mon, the guy’s not superman). What do we get from the Republicans? An argument to keep up the spying.

This is yet another example of how the Republican party can’t seem to get their act together — they are being torn apart by various internal factions that is destroying their former effectiveness. They only thing they seem to be able to do is vote to repeal Obamacare.  Further, all the attention they get is from overreaction on social issues from a few individuals and states that opens the entire party to ridicule by connection. My advice — get ahead of the game. Show that you can solve problems and lead — the Republican way. Figure out how to propose solutions that are palatable to enough of congress to get it through both houses, and convince the President that your way is acceptable. Lead the way on immigration reform. Lead the way on restoring civil liberties. Lead the way on creating a health-care system that works (that that means fixing, not repealing, Obamacare).

Now, personally, I’d be happy if a strong Democratic candidate won in 2016, and if the Republican partisianship led to Democrats retaking the house in 2014. But for the country’s sake, we Democrats can’t do it alone. Republicans — please — get your act together and learn to lead.